Glenfall House

CHARLTON KINGS

SO92SE MILL LANE 630-1/2/98 (East side (off)) 14/12/83 Glenfall House

II

House, c1770; rebuilt in brick c1799-1808 for Charles Higgs in 'cottage ornee' style; extended c1830-40 for Lieut Gen John Molyneaux; remodelled and extended (library, drawing room, dining room and ballroom) for Arthur Mitchell (of Mitchell and Butler's Breweries of Birmingham) by Sydney Barnsley c1923 and work executed by Peter Waals. Render over brick with ashlar dressings to garden facade and concealed slate roof; 3 stacks with cornices. EXTERIOR: entrance front: 2 storeys, 8 first-floor windows. Left end, 2-window range breaks forward and has Doric pilasters to angles and pediment; first-floor band. First floor has 6 x 8/8 sashes and 2/2 sash, right end window is blind. Ground floor: off-centre right entrance in 1920's doorcase: 6-panel door between 2 x 4/4 sashes, projecting hood on acanthus brackets, acanthus modillion frieze. Mainly 8/8 and 6/6 sashes, 10/10 sash and tripartite 6/6 between 2/2 sashes; right end blind. Garden (south) facade: 2 storeys, 6 first-floor windows. Ground floor projects and has central canted bay and is surmounted by balustrade with small bulbous balusters. First floor has Doric pilasters between windows, frieze and cornice, blocking course. 3 x 6/6 sashes, otherwise French windows. Ground floor: flight of steps to double central glazed doors with divided overlight; similar doors to left, otherwise 1- and 2-light mullion and transom windows, with shaped stone mullions and quoined surrounds. East return has C19 bow window to first floor with casement windows curved on plan; 2 full-height bows with mock sashes and pilasters between windows flanking 3-window centre. INTERIOR: Colebrookdale tile floor to hallway. Stained oak panelled library with built-in bookcases; ballroom with sprung floor has pair of short scagliola pillars with Ionic capitals, brought from North Africa to Leylam Abbey. to drawing room (now chapel) a C19 carved white marble fireplace; otherwise pine fireplaces of c1920s. The furniture included much by Peter Waals (some now in Cheltenham Museum). The top storey was removed after its sale in 1965. HISTORICAL NOTE: originally named 'Gutterfall', the name was changed to 'Glenfall' by 1817. The property was mortgaged by the Higgs family to a series of tenants and purchased in 1819 by Edward Iggulden of Deal who improved the grounds. It passed

to his daughter, Mary and her husband Lieutenant General John Molyneaux who extended the house and built Glenfall Lodge (qv). An engraving of the cottage ornee is included in Griffiths' 1826 New Historical Description of Cheltenham ..., however little trace of this house survives. (The Buildings of England: Verey D: Gloucestershire: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: London: 1970-: 122; Charlton Kings Local History Society Bulletin: 1984-: 10-14).

Listing NGR: SO9790021700